Conception
By 1978, Phil Collins had been part of Genesis for eight years. After spending the first five of those years as a drummer, he reluctantly accepted the role of front man of the group following original vocalist Peter Gabriel's departure shortly after the release of their conceptual progressive rock album, The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway. The first album where Collins took over was 1976's A Trick of the Tail, which while still featuring the same type of progressive rock that the group had been recording since its 1969 debut, also featured several ballads and softer rockers. Their 1978 album, ...And Then There Were Three..., featured their first crossover hit, "Follow You, Follow Me". The song and the subsequent album were the beginning of the group's breakaway from their progressive rock past into a more commercial, radio-friendly pop sound which alienated older fans but brought out newer ones. Following ...And Then There Were Three... and a world tour across America, Europe, and Japan, Collins took a leave of absence from the group to deal with his troubled family life. Collins' first wife filed for divorce in 1979 and left Collins in the home they shared in England by himself. Collins reportedly stayed in his house for weeks working on songs that reflected his personal life. Initially, Collins did not want to record them for an album until Atlantic Records, Genesis' record label in America, and Virgin Records, his label overseas, offered him a solo contract. Collins would base the majority of Face Value on the divorce he had endured. Some of Collins' material that he wrote for Face Value made its way onto Genesis' subsequent follow-up, Duke. Collins' radio-friendly vocals helped to make Duke a major success.
Read more about this topic: Face Value (album)
Famous quotes containing the word conception:
“The fact is that all writers create their precursors. Their work modifies our conception of the past, just as it is bound to modify the future.”
—Jorge Luis Borges (1899–1986)
“It is sadder to find the past again and find it inadequate to the present than it is to have it elude you and remain forever a harmonious conception of memory.”
—F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940)
“The real, then, is that which, sooner or later, information and reasoning would finally result in, and which is therefore independent of the vagaries of me and you. Thus, the very origin of the conception of reality shows that this conception essentially involves the notion of a COMMUNITY, without definite limits, and capable of a definite increase of knowledge.”
—Charles Sanders Peirce (1839–1914)